These days when both husband and wife are working and spending a lot of time in office and on travelling from home to office, it becomes difficult for them to find spare time. There is a race between the two to be better professionals and progress in their jobs. The cost of living has gone up considerably and the expenses involved in bringing up a child have also gone up. In view of this parents often decide on having one child. In nuclear families caring for the child also becomes difficult, and children have to be sent to babysitters or play school.

A few decades ago the norm was to have large number of children. Different members of the families including parents, children and grand children were living together having a common kitchen. At that time bringing up children was not an issue as someone was always available in case of need. Those were the times when having a single child was considered a sign of incapacity of some type, now having a large number of children is considered strange.

These days all people are accustomed to having a particular standard of living according to the means. The parents want to provide maximum facilities to the child without foregoing their own comfort. With the parents living alone, looking after the child is mainly the responsibility of the mother. She has to forego comfort to a great extent, and thinking of having a second child after the first has grown up is a nightmare for her.

There are a large number of advantages and disadvantages of being the only child. The main advantage is that the child gets maximum attention from the parents. All his genuine needs can be fulfilled. The child gets proper education by admission to a good school, and also at home the parent who has time tries his or her best to impart teaching. Such children are often involved in extracurricular activities and sports. Being able to get individual and personalised attention of the parents the child tends to learn more and behave in a more refined manner.

Those opposed to this school of thought say that a single child is often shy and not social. This may not be correct. There are many more single children living around him or her and they all try to find friends. Moreover going to public parks, sharing toys with other children and playing together provide much needed companionship to children. Similar is the position in school where there are large numbers of other single children. As such one may conclude that these days having a large number of children is not a necessity. The necessity is to provide best possible attention to the child, who may be a single child.